Happy summer from Carpe Mundi!
Just as for many of you, the last few months have been quite the whirlwind for Carpe Mundi students and staff. Over the span of a few days in March, Carpe Mundi students and staff found themselves abruptly wrenched from their immersive travels abroad and sitting on planes homebound, several weeks earlier than expected. Carpe Mundi has always supported students post-travel, in-person, with multiple meetings a week at the Carpe Mundi office. Obviously, that support had to look different this year.
Carpe Mundi cohort facilitators, Carol and Hansell, adjusted quickly to move their mentorship online. As an experiential education organization, Zoom meetings are new territory for us, but we are grateful for the opportunity to stay connected with our students. Considering the circumstances, it’s been a smooth transition. We got creative, sharing videos, reading articles, and even having a virtual debate. Hansell and Carol checked in with their students individually on a frequent basis, to make sure they had the resources needed to transition to life back in Portland. We had 16 wonderful individuals sign up to be volunteer writing mentors, and support our students through the writing process. All 18 of our students are on track to complete their 24 credits from Portland State. We are proud of their resolve and ability to reflect on their experiences, even though they were cut short.
While the world looks different than it did a few months ago, Carpe Mundi is still standing strong. We believe that our programming is more important now than ever before: increasing access to higher education opportunities for BIPOC students, exposing students to different cultures and ways of thinking, and cultivating globally-aware leaders ready to take on new challenges. To that end, we are hopeful that international travel will be a safe and viable option for students next February, and are preparing for two cohorts of students for the 2020-21 school year. We can’t wait to introduce them to you this fall.
All of these efforts aren’t possible without the support of contributions from individuals and foundations, and this spring saw some exciting new developments in the realm of fundraising. First, we launched our first ever monthly giving program, the Frequent Flyer Club, and have 22 members! It’s not too late to sign up, if you’d like to be a part of supporting Carpe Mundi students year round. We also received grants from the Richard B. Siegel Foundation to provide mentorship for our PDXchange cohort, and from the Black United Fund. We are so grateful for these generous gifts that create life changing opportunities for our students.
Thank you for being on this journey with us. Now, more than ever, we appreciate the value of community. We’re grateful to have you as a part of ours.
Rachel